Lifescience player Syntem raises E22m

Investors in the third financing round include Lombard Odier & Cie, Apax Partners, Banexi Ventures and Healthcap.

Swiss biopharmaceutical company Syntem has raised a total of E22m in its third round of venture capital financing.

The immunology fund of Lombard Odier & Cie (Switzerland) and BankInvest (Denmark), co-leads the deal. Existing shareholders Apax Partners & Cie, Banexi Ventures and Healthcap made return investments. New investors include Rendex (Belgium), Private Equity Holding, managed by the Vontobel Group (Switzerland), Medicis (Germany) and Mercure Biotech (France).

Synt:em is a privately held biopharmaceutical company that has developed proprietary technologies for the discovery of novel therapeutics for neurological diseases. It has initiated an internal portfolio of research programmes for central nervous system diseases. Synt:em’s first product developed using its new technology is expected to enter clinical trials for acute pain in 2002.

Michel Kaczorek, president and CEO of Synt:em, said: “It is our intention to use the money that we have raised to fund the development of our own drug candidates through their preclinical and early stage clinical development; a strategy that we expect will enable us to generate significant value for all of the company’s shareholders”.